The Wizard of Id's page

I have been fortunate to have quite a few great PC's in my games, one of my most recent was when I had a player play a deep gnome con-man who for some reason spoke with a bad, thick, Russian accent. His schtick was that he sold exotic potions and wares, one of which was the magical "doors-on-floors" potion which would act like old bugs-bunny cartoons either creating a portal to go through a solid wall, or creating a extra dimensional space like a rope-trick. One new player in my group purchased several of these from him, thinking that if she was ever in a pinch, it would be handy. Eventually one gaming session, the player of the deep gnome could not make the session and the party got into a pickle. With monsters chasing her down the new player pulled out her trusty doors-on-floors and threw it only to watch as the mundane pot of ink broke open on the floor.
The following session, the new player with her new character railed the deep gnome player, it is a good thing they were freinds. It was just so funny at the time.

A lot of my campaigns are like what your asking about Chromnos. First, I make sure that the players I play with are grounded, genuinely good folks, who expect the same things from the game as I do. Secondly, I preface from the get-go if the "vibe" of the campaign will be "good" or "evil". Most of my "good" campaigns are NG,LN,N,CN,CG. I find that the gaming sessions are more enjoyable when the players are working together toward a goal than having intrigue for intrigue's sake. They may deviate from the alignment definition, but most of their decisions are based off of their alignments. They may also bicker amongst each other as players once in a while over who gets that sweet longsword +2, but most often they look at it as "who can benefit the party the most", not "how can i get it to benefit me".

A example of one past campaign I ran is I had one local group that were the "Evil" party, and a online group who were the "Good" party. Both coexisted in the same campaign and depending on location/timeline would run into each other and battle it out. This gave me a chance to game with a old friend who moved away and create exciting game play. Overall it worked really well, even the evil characters kept their eye on the prize and I had little to no in fighting amongst players because they knew what the deal was. I guess that is what comes from players playing a evil alignment character who are not attempting to make it more than it is.

In all of it though, I feel that a fair, level headed GM who is there to spin the story and mediate the players and the rules is important. I have seen even the most benevolent player get wrapped up in character optimization, personal quests for that one cool item they want, or get angry over something another player did. It is these times a GM needs to step in and ask the player of why their playing, and let them realize that they took things too far.

If your a player in this game it sounds like a possible failure of the DM to me honestly, on multiple points.

First, the DM should of picked up on the banter which apparently was going on for some time, and warned them that acts such as that can lead to alignment shifts (and other implications). Although, it sounds like this is the type of player who enjoys "competing" against the GM, and expects that every other player at the table has the same values, and enjoys the game in the same way as them. This player, when finding another player with similar values likes talking crap behind his/her's back.

Second possible failure was the control of the Yorick character. When ever I have party controlled NPCS I always think back to that line in the spell suggestion. "The suggestion must be worded in such a manner as to make the activity sound reasonable." To me, regardless of motivation an NPC would not charge headlong into the gaping maw of a dragon unless very special conditions were met.

The third failure I see is probably because I have spent wayyyyy too much time behind the screen. The GM, regardless of the quality of the gaming group has to be cognizant of the attitudes and psychology of the players. If the GM's goal was to conduct a story in a certain fashion and these characters, through their OOC plotting deviated irrevocably from that path (especially if I warned them), then DM needs to decided how to handle it.

Personally, both in game and OOC they broke Wheaton's Law, and as a DM I would not hesitate to explain that to them; and the fact that if they continued to act in that manner, they would be asked to leave. I have no time at my table for pretentious players, herding cats, or ones who travel outside the bounds of story and background, after warning, only to shake things up. As a GM I also have a responsibility to insure that all the players in my gaming group feel secure, and are not getting brow beaten or harassed by other players.

That being said, I would attempt to talk to the DM, because he/she might not even know that they are talking bad of them. As for your options:
Option 1) Could be fun, but these players will continue to run rough-shod over the GM
Option 2) That's letting them win
Option 3) Not entirely fun for you, unless you secretly just have fun mentally outmaneuvering them on a nightly basis.

You should focus on option 4) Which is see if the GM will reign in those players.
If he/she will then its possible that you will feel comfortable with the group again, and can continue the adventure.

Name: Kannon

Race: Human (Tian Xian)

Classes/levels: Level 2 Druid (Lion Shaman)

Adventure: Stolen Land

Location: Mite Cave

Catalyst: Overconfident Players

The Gory Details: Currently I am running Alexander Kilcoyne's 6 player conversion for Kingmaker, and it is going pretty well. However, my players might have thought things were going too well. The party I am currently DMing is pretty powerful, requiring tweaks here and there and sneaky DM work.

In this case the party made there Into the mite lair from R1, headed toward R3, instantly slaughtering all of the mites. Feeling confident they split up with three and the kobold headed toward R2 and three (with the druid's Lion pet) toward R4.

The Druids Lion was the first to try and cross the crevasse, rolling a one and falling in. At this point I realized I drew the crevasse way to small on the battle map to have a combat in it and devised a excellent plan. The next turn the Lion climbed out, and Kannon crossed next. No one rolled perception to see anything so of course, she fell in the pit. The rest of the characters realized the trap and crossed safely.

Meanwhile, the other team entered R6 slightly wounded from the centipedes and slaughtered the mites in there, and while the Druid was climbing out of the crevasse both parties were on the edge of entering R5. As expected, they both rushed in and engaged the mite body guards and Grabbles and Tickleback. The upgraded stats provided in Alexander Kilcoyne's upgrade were perfect. The party took a turn or two to grind through the mite body guards while the Lion and the Fighter/Phalanx Solider attacked Grabbles.

They first focused their attention on Grabbles but had a hard time hitting his AC of 21, and once tickleback hit them they started to focus on the mount instead of the rider. DM wise I did not see a issue with this as the HP differences between the rider and mount were so large that of course Grabbles would let the mount soak the HP. So about halfway through round 3, Kannon is standing by the cave entrance to R4.

This is when I decided to have the Whiptail come in and attack them on their flank. The first attack instantly reduced her to -6 (out of her 7 CON). Despite the party members trying to scramble it was too late. And as the battle progressed the PCs attacked it one at a time until it had claimed two more unconscious, thinking Grabbles was the bigger threat. In the end only the lion and two of the other 5 party members were conscious.

Even though I play a "call it how it drops" style the players came up with a reasonable solution, There going to take some time off from exploring and attempt to mine gold from the gold vein to pay for Kannon to be taken back to Restov to be rezzed. Thinking ahead, the players already had Oleg order in mining and smelting equipment in a previous session. I figured this would do two things, it would fix some of the loot scaling in the 6 player adventure and allow the players a one-time side quest to civilization for a few days.